Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said on the 22nd in connection with recent hacking incidents at telecom and financial companies, "We will strengthen investigative authority so that we can investigate ex officio the situations in which investigations had only been possible when there were (hacking) reports by corporations."
At an emergency briefing to review the hacking incidents involving telecom and financial companies held at the government complex in Seoul that day, Kim said, "We will clarify whether there are any problems regarding the allegations that operators concealed or downplayed the incidents," announcing the plan.
According to the Prime Minister's Office, hacking incidents have recently occurred at telecom and financial companies. On Apr. 4th, there was a leak of SIM information at SK Telecom (SKT), and at KT there was an unauthorized small-amount payment case in which, to date, 362 users suffered damages of about 240 million won. It was also revealed that KT's servers were hacked. Last month, Lotte Card's servers were hacked, and the personal information of about 3 million members was leaked.
Regarding the hacking of Lotte Card's servers in particular, Kim pointed out, "Core information related to payments, including the card numbers, passwords, and CVCs of 280,000 members, was all leaked. It can be seen that virtually the most important information was all compromised."
He added, "Telecommunications and finance are the backbone that supports our economy and society and essential services that people use every day," and said, "The government feels deeply sorry and takes seriously that people's personal information was leaked and their valuable assets were charged without authorization."
He said, "We will consider every remedy so that those who suffered damage do not experience inconvenience," and added, "Beyond the damage routes identified so far, we will check whether there are hidden victims through other routes. We will thoroughly investigate what caused the incidents and whether there were any shortcomings in the operators' security management systems."
He went on, "To prevent similar hacking incidents, the government will comprehensively overhaul the information protection systems of the telecommunications and financial sectors," adding, "Ministers of the relevant ministries, please approach the response and resolution of this situation with the determination to engage in a war against hacking."